World
Spain: Ortega Smith joins Mixed Group and severs final ties with Vox
Javier Ortega Smith, former secretary-general of Spain's far-right Vox party, requested on July 17, 2026 to join the Mixed Group (Grupo Mixto) in the Congress of Deputies, severing his last institutional link to Santiago Abascal's party. The move reduces Vox's parliamentary presence to 32 deputies. In his farewell letter to Abascal, Ortega Smith accuses the party leadership of betraying Vox's founding values and "sequestering" the party, its activists, and grassroots base. He maintains an ongoing legal challenge against his expulsion and has not ruled out founding a new political movement.